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the more I look into the mobile application ecosystem the more depressed I get...

it is quite tough to find a simple tool without ads or user data tracking, damn so frustrating
I just wanted a nice way to play offline files... 😠❗

This is on iOS because someone offered me an iPhone a while back, but these sorta things make me not want to use it.
I might just buy an old style "mp3" player again, dedicated physical buttons are a plus.

@falktx Is VLC on the app store yet? I do know there was an issue with GPL there but I remember seeing some other GPL app on there recently. I don't have an iPhone, but it works well on Android.

@boo_ it is, and it also what I have been using so far. but I need to import every single music file individually which is a major PITA

@falktx @boo_ If I remember correctly, when I had the iPhone with VLC many years ago, you could connect to a local web server on the phone and drag music files (maybe not 1000 at a time) through a web interface via browser... It was actually a feature of VLC.

@somatalos @boo_ some apps work like that yes.

The big problem seems to be that there's no way for iOS apps to read files from arbitrary folders, say documents or downloads.

Each app must use its own directory for storage, which defeats the purpose of what I wanted to do - nextcloud sync to local files, and some other tool would play them.

It is such a simple thing yet impossible to do on iOS. Ironic that 10+ year old iPods can do this task much better wtf

@falktx @boo_ Ohh... Ok, I got it, that's why my other reply about Android (which I personally prefer way better).

@falktx my daughter, who just turned 15, has always been using old style mp3 players. sometimes you just know, what you need, when you see it :)

@falktx

Dedicated MP3 players are brilliant! Getting harder to find them nowadays, they are often repackaged Android phones :/

@falktx Idk, I can't use an iPhone anymore... since when? 5s... they are clunky, closed, and overly complicated for simple tasks. I prefer stock Android, maybe even a cheap Pixel model (6a?!) with GrapheneOS. F-Droid has a lot of cool music players like Music Player Go, Auxio, and Symphony.📱🎶🎧

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